Fee based income of £31,000,000.

Over the last 30 years, Bray Leino has committed itself to growth; through both acquisition and organic development of existing clients, and despite the economic climate, the last 12 months have been no different. Last May they acquired Rhythmm, a highly respected Direct Marketing agency and merged them into their Bristol agency. Over the last 12 months they also acquired Broadskill, a training company with a great reputation for the provision of training and learning programmes to the private sector. It has merged it with its existing training business that previously had more of a public sector focus, and together they’ve become Bray Leino Broadskill, a top five training business in its own right.

With these developments, Bray Leino has also made a number of additions to its management team, including Kevin Yull and Chris Badley to head up the creative output of the ‘direct’ team, Matt Rees – Direct and Channel Strategy, Steve Hall – Executive Creative Director, and Nick Carroll, who joined from McCanns. In addition, Patrick Furse joined from Sapient to lead the development of the digital offering and Ross Walker joined from TNS to head up the groups Experiential and Events division.

Reflecting on the last 12 months, MD Ian Noble says, “Headquartered out of North Devon and even here in Bristol, business has never simply come to us and so there has always been a focused group-wide new business programme. These last 12 months, we’ve certainly seen other agencies reducing the investment costs associated with new business, viewing it as a luxury in these leaner times. We, however, believe that new business is the lifeblood of any agency and a vitally important motivator, as well as a commercial imperative.”

As an agency that has a solid track record within the public sector, the last year has seen Bray Leino re-focus its efforts on government funded work. Noble also points out that, as a fully integrated agency, his team have something of an advantage when it comes to recession hit companies looking to consolidate their marketing spend. “It’s clear that single channel solutions are a thing of the past and, therefore, the capacity to deliver across the experiential, digital and PR landscape for example is a huge benefit to a client, both in terms of cost efficiency and strategic integrity.”

Last year, the company’s long-term strategy saw wins including The Royal Mint, Virgin Media and the contract to promote the next Census. Noble says, “Differentiation is a key challenge for all of us and so, this year, we have all definitely placed a greater emphasis on capturing, distilling and communicating our proposition.”

This year has also seen the company focus on digital technology, ensuring the team adopts a ‘digital’ mindset across all disciplines within the group. “Rather than being viewed as another channel in its own right, we now place it at the heart of our business, from strategic planning through to creative solution.”

Bray Leino has also been busy introducing a ‘people first’ strategy – a programme which looks at every facet of a potential or existing member of the team’s life at Bray Leino. “It explores how we promote ourselves as an employer .”

The company says some of its most exciting projects have taken place over the last 12 months, including work with The Royal Mint to deliver a direct channel marketing programme to support their collectibles division. The team were tasked with developing the brand strategy and designing and launching the Olympics coins collection.

Another significant win of the last 12 months was the contract to promote the 201 Census for the Office of National Statistics “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We’ve been appointed as their above-the-line agency to deliver an awareness campaign leading up to Census day itself in March 2011. The campaign will cover TV, cinema, direct mail, radio, outdoor and digital comms. The win was the result of a five-month tendering process lead by James Robertson and has a reputed spend of around £10m.”

This year has also seen Bray Leino working as the PR and Advertising agency for OMSCO (the trade organisation supporting farmers who produce organic milk) and as PR representatives for Virgin Media.